Chapter One Hundred and Eleven
An Outing Cut Short
Meanwhile, Optimus, Arcee, Ironhide and Bumblebee had arrived at the destination where Ratchet had discovered the Cylinder.
It was within the Nevada Desert a few miles away from the silo and within a wide gorge.
Ironhide held up the scanner in his servo and narrowed his optics.
"Signals close." he said.
"Great." Arcee said as she looked around "No sign of any cons!"
Bumblebee bleeped at Arcee suddenly to which the femme narrowed her optics.
"Don't jinx it?" she asked.
Bumblebee bleeped again.
"You heard that from the kids huh?" Arcee chuckled.
Ironhide took no notice of the bantering bots behind him and walked forward before coming to a pile of rocks.
"I think I'm warm." he said with a smirk then he punched the ground and his fist disappered inside.
Optimus leaned over hopefully as he watched his friend dig around then he saw him smirk and he pulled his fist out to reveal what he had grabbed.
"Jackpot Prime!" he grinned as he held up the cylinder Ratchet had been showing the mutants earlier.
"Well done Ironhide!" Optimus said as he reached for the Cylinder and placed a digit to his audios to radio Ratchet, but no sooner did he do so than a blast was heard and the cylinder was knocked out of Ironhide's servo!
"Primus's Beard!" Ironhide exclaimed and everyone else jumped back, Bumblebee letting out a bleep in shock as they saw the Cylinder fly through the air and land just a few feet away from them.
Optimus looked up and he saw four dark purple and black jets above them.
"Decepticons!" he growled.
"Uggh!" Ironhide groaned "Why is it always the darn case, we find another useful artifact and the con's show up?!"
Bumblebee bleeped at Arcee as if to say 'Told you not to jinx it!'
Arcee rolled her optics then readied her guns, and at the same time, she saw Breakdown and Knock Out drive up.
"Two Rust bucket morons at 4 'o'clock!" she reported.
Optimus narrowed his eyes and commed Ratchet again.
"Don't let them get near the artifact!" he reminded his team.
"You darn tootin' Prime!" Ironhide agreed "Lets go guys!"
Unaware of what was taking place Culpepper, Pandora, Kemeko, the Twins, Michelangelo and Bulkhead continued to enjoy the open space and the track in the middle of the desert waste.
Pandora had taken off on the track and had done a few leaps and wheelies as she went, whooping with joy as she did so.
Since she had been old enough to do so, Raphael had given her a few lessons on his shell-cycle before it was destroyed by the Decepticons that fateful day.
The bike she rode on was nothing like her father's shell-cycle, as it's wheels were skinnier and more knobbly given how they were bikes rough for rough terrian, and it felt a little lighter and easier to do stunts on and she soon found herself copying what Culpepper did each time she flew through the air, kicking her legs behind her and even doing a few hand stands on the handlebars as she was airborne.
Watching from the sidelines, Michelangelo crossed his arms.
"Well, Stone me!" he said "Tigeress has picked it up rather quick!"
"I'll say she has." Bulkhead agreed.
Freya and Loki rolled their eyes and Kemeko scoffed.
"Show off." they muttered.
"She just can't help herself." Freya said "I admit she is very good, but she does love to show how good she is."
"Tell me about it." Loki agreed.
Culpepper meanwhile looked impressed as he watched and he was already looking at challenging Pandora to a race when she came back to the starting line.
"She often like that?" he asked Kemeko who looked up at him.
"Yep!" she said "Loves to show off and show how great she is, humble isn't her strongest point."
Culpepper shrugged.
"It's good to be confident, but hopefully she's not arrogant?"
Kemeko was about to reply but the Hybrid soon came back to the starting line and pulled off the helmet.
"Whoo!" she said her eyes sparkling with excitement, "That was awesome, you guys gotta try this!"
"I don't know Geisha." Michelangelo said "The last time I rode your old man's shell-cycle, I nearly crashed it, I got banned after that!"
Loki rolled his eyes.
"Typical! Well you weren't as bad as Rattletrap! He crashes pretty much all the time and he has his own motorbike."
Culpepper frowned.
"You mentioned this Rattletrap." he said.
"Oh don't get us started!" Freya said "He's our self proclaimed engineer and fix-it man, a dirty brown rat who thinks he's a magician with mechanics!"
"I see." Culpepper said.
"And if you two should ever meet, don't show him your bikes our quads, you'll never see them again."
"Thanks for the advice." Culpepper said stroking the handles of one of his quads.
"So." Pandora challenged "Whose next for the bike?" she glanced at the twins and Kemeko.
The Twins looked rather keen, but Kemeko shook her head.
"I don't think I'm ready for that." she said "I wasn't even keen to ride Uncle Raph's Shell-cycle!"
Culpepper smiled.
"If you want you can start small with the Quad Bike?" he said "I could show you how it works?" he patted the handles of the quad bike.
Kemeko looked over at the human man, a sense of excitement swelling in her chest.
"Really?" she asked "Sure, I'd love to learn."
"Hang on a sec!" Michelangelo interrupted walking over before the Asian girl could get closer to the Quad bike.
"You sure it's safe?" he asked Culpepper.
The human man was a little taken aback but he understood why the turtle was concerned.
Before they had left the silo, Tyroth, Raphael and Leonardo had told the youngest turtle to keep a close watch as well as make sure the kids stayed safe.
"Sure!" Culpepper said brightly "It's perfectly safe, I've been riding these since I was twelve! and their pretty easy to ride"
Michelangelo narrowed his eyes as he analyzed the quad bike and Pandora watched him with her head cocked.
"Who are you and what have you done with Uncle Mike?" she asked feeling rather shocked her Uncle was showing a more serious side.
It wasn't new to her, especially when it came to patrol or fighting their enemies, but here was another story since they were having some lesiure time.
Michelangelo looked over.
"Just looking out for Kemeko, Geisha." he said "If anything happens, her Father, your Uncle Leo will use my Shell for target practice!"
"True that." Loki said "And our dad...oh boy."
Culpepper swallowed hard.
"When your dad was interrogating me," he said "I felt terrified as he looked at me, his eyes are like...well..."
"Hellfire?" Pandora asked "Yep! He's given me those eyes before."
"More times than we care to remember." Loki muttered then ducked as Pandora took a swipe at him.
"We'll have a go on the bikes!" Freya said quickly before Pandora and Loki could get into a fist fight "Maybe we could show you a few stunts of our own?" she nudged Loki who looked at his sister who gave him a side look.
"Oh yeah! Sure!" he said, a grim forming on his face as he grinned.
Pandora gave a playful frown and pushed the bike she had been riding towards him as well as handed him the helmet.
Culpepper meanwhile gave Freya his helmet and bike and the two geckolings got on and positioned themselves at the starting line.
"Okay!" Pandora said "Show us what you two can do!" She held up her arms as she stood in front of them.
Then she swung her arms down and knelt to the ground giving the Geckolings the cue to drive off.
As she did that, the Geckolings sped off down the track and everyone watched them go off.
Kemeko sat on the Quad Bike with Culpepper and Michelangelo next to her and Pandora went over to join them so she could watch the Geckolings.
As she stood next to Culpepper, the human leaned close to her.
"Hey." he said "You up for a race later on?"
Pandora felt a shiver run down her spine as she heard that and she nodded.
"Oh yes please." she purred "I can show you how good I can be in a race!"
Culpepper smirked.
"You're on!" he said.
Meanwhile, the Geckolings drive their bikes over the tracks, whooping for joy and excitement as they did so.
"It's a good thing we practiced on those mountain bikes you salvaged!" Freya called over to her brother.
"Yeah! And I was able to fix them!" Loki called over.
"Except these aren't quite mountain bikes, they got engines!" Freya said then she saw another hill appear.
"Ready for the Spinning Fire Dragon?" she asked.
Loki nodded.
"You got it!" he said "Pandora might have a few tricks, but she's got nothing on us!"
"You bet!" Freya said "Ready bro? Let's do it!"
They speeded up the bikes as they headed towards the hill then they launched them into the air before opening their wings and giving themselves an extra boost.
Culpepper, Michelangelo, Pandora and Kemeko gasped then saw the Geckolings close their wings and activate their mana before doing a couple of forward spins so they almost looked like a couple of Catherine-wheels.
"Whoa!" Culpepper cried "They're not gonna blow the bikes up are they?!" he cried as he eared their heat would make the petrol in the bikes explode.
"Don't panic boy!" Michelangelo reassured the young man placing his hand on his shoulders "That's just their mana, not a flame!"
"Yeah!" Pandora agreed "it won't set the bikes on fire."
"Whoa!" Bulkhead leaned forward from his spot nearby "And I thought I'd seen everything with those two!"
They then watched as the Geckolings landed on the track then did a few more stunts where when they did a few leaps and spins, they used their wings to stay longer in the air then glided back onto the track and before long they were back at the starting line.
Pandora and Kemeko clapped and cheered.
"Great stunts there!" Kemeko praised.
"Yeah! Awesome!" Pandora said then patted the geckolings on the shoulders "You guys got me beat that's for sure!"
Culpepper meanwhile went to check the bikes and he was relieved they weren't affected by the Geckoling's mana.
Michelangelo meanwhile chuckled as he saw the young man's concern.
"He's just like Donny and Raph over their vehicles." he thought "or least, they used to be."
He thought again about how Raphael and Donatello felt about loosing the Shell-Cycle and the Battle Shell those weeks back, he knew they were devestated when they were first destroyed by the Decepticons, but he wondered how they still felt about it now.
Just then, a few gunshots were heard in the distance which made everyone stop what they were doing to listen.
Pandora, Kemeko and Michelangelo's ninja ears picked them up first.
Kemeko looked nervous.
"What's that sound?" she asked.
"You don't suppose?" Pandora asked but Bulkhead stood up at he heard Ratchet's voice in his audios.
"Bulkhead!" the medic's voice was heard "Optimus and the others need back-up! Get in the field now! The Battlefield is only a few clicks from your co-ordinates!"
"I hear you Ratchet!" The Wrecker said then looked at the organics "Sorry Guys!" he said "I'm needed in the field." he then transformed and drove off before anyone could stop him.
"Hey wait!" Michelangelo shouted after him "What are we meant to do?" he looked at Culpepper and the younger ninjas.
Loki meanwhile watched Bulkhead and opened his wings.
"Another giant robot smack down?" he asked "This I gotta see!"
"Hold on!" Michelangelo shouted "You want to watch the action?!"
"Shouldn't we ask Ratchet for a Ground-Bridge?" Freya asked.
Pandora meanwhile smirked.
"I'm in!" she said to which Kemeko face palmed.
"You're always in!" she snapped.
"Just from a distance!" Pandora argued.
Culpepper meanwhile frowned as he thought for a moment then grabbed his bike.
"Pandora's right!" he said "As long as we don't get too close." he said then looked at Michelangelo and Kemeko.
Pandora climbed onto the other bike and gestured with her head to Kemeko who bit her lip but she didn't want to get left behind so she climbed onto the back of it behind her cousin.
"Just promise me you won't go in there!" she said as she wrapped her arms around the hybrid's waist.
"I promise!" Pandora said.
Michelangelo meanwhile jumped on one of the Quad Bikes.
"Let's ride!" he said "Just don't tell your parents okay?" he requested.
Pandora nodded and started up the bike, Kemeko holding on tightly and lead the way towards the sounds, Culpepper and Michelangelo riding behind them.
Meanwhile at the Battle-Ground, the Autobots fought violently in hand to hand combat as well as blasted each other with their guns.
Optimus managed to punch a couple of the drones away as he tried to cover the cylinder and now he was fighting against Knock-Out.
"Autobots! Stand your Ground!" he ordered throwing the Decepticon Medic to the side.
"The Artifact must not fall into enemy hands!"
Arcee ran towards the Cylinder, but Knock-Out kicked her away.
"Come to Papa!" he declared as he reached for it but Bulkhead appeared and punched him away.
"Run to Mommy!" he jeered, yet Breakdown appeared behind him and grabbed his head.
"Say Uncle!" he shouted as the wrecker struggled in his grip "Say it!"
As Bulkhead had appeared on the battlefield, Michelangelo, Culpepper, Pandora, Kemeko and the twins arrived at the edge of a cliff looking over the action.
Loki's eyes widened in awe as he watched.
"Whoa!" he said "I could never get bored of this!"
Freya stood nearby.
"Let's just stay here and out of the way." she said "Dad already gave us the riot act after that escapade with Airachnid!"
The Geckolings soon heard the engines of bikes behind them and they turned to see Culpepper, Michelangelo, Pandora and Kemeko behind them.
"Glad you could join us." Freya said as Pandora and Kemeko run up to watch the action.
"What are they fighting over?" Kemeko asked.
Michelangelo pulled out some binoculars he carried with him and looked through them.
"Well, they're not out here for nothing." he said as he analysed the battle field and before long he saw the cylinder on the ground that Optimus and Ironhide were trying to shield.
"Hey! There's something the Big O and Red Guy are standing around."
"What?" everyone asked looking at the turtle.
"A cylinder of some sort!" Michelangelo reported to which Loki grabbed the binoculars and looked through them to see.
"Hey!" Michelangelo protested but Loki took no notice as he saw the cylinder on the ground and he narrowed his eyes, an idea coming to him.
Once again a fun outing is cut short and Bulkhead's called to action, yet Michelangelo, Culpepper, Pandora, Kemeko and the twins aren't far behind and so far they intend to watch the action, yet now that Loki's seen what the Cybertonians are fighting over, he's having a few thoughts...
I think it's safe to guess what! Given fans of the show know what's coming! Stay tuned to find out!
I meanwhile, as it's Halloween Eve am heading off to Europe's Best Halloween Festival Shocktoberfest! Feeling excited!
